I woke up in a cold sweat, which wasn't unusual after a Night of Flashback. Sighing, I sat up and rubbed my eyes, quickly putting the events of my life out of my mind. They were replaced by several new observations, which came in quick succession to each other. First of all, the space beside me in the bed was empty, as usual, but second of all, there was a sad lack of breakfast scents coming from the kitchen, which made the first object more intriguing. Thirdly, the room was unnaturally quiet, and I realized that the clock on the wall wasn't ticking: it must have run out of batteries. I'd have to get some new ones later. And finally, I realized that there was muted noise in the room, but rather than familiar ticking it was the sound of voices coming from the hall, presumably arguing.

I rolled over in bed, not wishing to deal with Garmadon and Morro's quarrels so early in the morning. However, I was suddenly aware that if I fell back asleep I might start dreaming again, and that was enough to drag me back out from under the covers. Making sure not to hit my head on the lamp, I sleepily walked over to my lab coat, slipped it on, and headed down the hallway.

As expected, Morro and Garmadon were in the living room arguing. Garmadon stood angrily with his hands on his hips, and Morro sat on the couch with a paper bowl of ice cream in his lap.

"Morro, I swear to the maker of plastic bricks, if you don't put that away right now…" The Sensei's words trailed off as he noticed me and turned to face me. His face turned pale.

"Doctor Julien, my profuse apologies. I tried to make the boy stop, but he—"

"His name's Sanjay, remember?" Morro corrected him. Surprisingly, he seemed the calmer out of the two at the moment. "Hmm… tan-jay… plan-jay… lifespan-jay…" he mused. Then, grinning and snapping his fingers, he exclaimed, "Ooh! Man-Jay! Get it? 'Cuz you're like Jay but older?"

"I'm afraid Garmadon's already beat you to that premise," I said, rubbing my eyes, "But the rhyming factor is a nice touch. Now, would you care to explain why you two are fighting?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Garmadon asked gruffly, and pointed a finger to the bowl of ice cream on Morro's lap. Morro lifted a spoonful and ate it without breaking eye contact.

"Hmm… I see an old man eating ice cream for breakfast. Interesting," I said, my tone condescending. Then a smile spread across my face. "Not what I expected to see, but if there's any of that left, I think I shall join you. And then there will be two old men eating ice cream for breakfast!" Garmadon looked shocked and Morro broke out in a huge grin.

"Yea, I left a lot! The rest is in the freezer. And I'm not old," he said, cheerfully putting another spoonful into his mouth. He made a face of victory at his rival, who was still looking at me like I was crazy. Smiling to myself, I walked to the kitchen to get my own bowl of "breakfast," calling back over my shoulder as I went, "Oh, and don't get any of that on the couch," in as casual a tone as one might tell another to watch their step.

"You got it, Doc," he responded, and I caught a glimpse of him saluting me before I exited the room. Garmadon hurried out and followed me.

"What were you thinking?!" he asked me once we were at the fridge.

"The boy did pay for it with his own credit, and as I told you, there's no such thing as nutritional value in the Departed Realm," I commented back, and started making myself a bowl of the desert. I'd never switched around my meals before, but I felt kind of giddy doing so, like I was a little kid playing a prank.

"No, not that!" he cried, then added, "Well, ok, that too. But I'm talking about letting Morro eat ice cream."

"For the duration I've seen him, he's eaten plenty of sugar. He almost ate an entire plateful of cookies in one sitting when he first came over," I pointed out. "Also, he usually seems off-kilter in the mornings, and while I do enjoy that, he seems more like his usual self having eaten already."

Garmadon sighed and shook his head sadly, as if watching a young, optimistic man march bravely into a war against an unbeatable army. "Well, for some reason, ice cream and that boy don't mix. We passed an ice cream vendor while we were still looking for our houses— before we found you— and… well…" He shuddered. "I hope he's doing better now."

"The vendor, or Morro?" I asked, a touch confused.

"Well, the vendor, but now that you mention it, both." He glanced around the kitchen and then started heading out. "I'm going to go read in the bedroom until the storm blows over, if you don't mind."

Clever analogy, I thought to myself. "Feel free. But aren't you going to eat before you go? You usually make us a feast, I'd think you'd at least want something to hold you until lunch."

"My apologies for not cooking anything, I was—" he hesitated. "I haven't been feeling so well lately. Last night was a rough sleep for me. I'm not exactly hungry. Hard to believe, hm?" He laughed weakly. My stomach dropped. Of course— most of Garmadon's life had been spent as an evil overlord. Those couldn't be great memories to relive.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to— I understand," I said quickly, and hurried out with my bowl of ice cream in hand. Morro was still on the couch. He grinned and bowed over-dramatically when he saw me coming.

"Hello, Doc. Care to join me in my feast?" he asked, moving aside on the couch. He seemed very cheerful, and even if it was the ice cream's doing, I wasn't about to complain.

"I shall, thank you," I said in the same over-dramatic fashion, and took a seat next to him. "How was your night?"

"It was fine, good sir. I was awake for a large part of it, so I spent the time… um…" He tried to think of a fancy way to say his next line. "Endowing myself in literature."

A grin broke out on my face. "You continued your book, I presume?"

He nodded. "Indeed. It is full of adventure and intrigue. Very much a young person's sport."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Well then, this young man is delighted to hear that." I took a bite out of my ice cream and we both went quiet for a while to eat.

"So what's the plan for today?" he asked, breaking character.

"I hadn't really thought of anything, although perhaps if there's time to be spent alone I may start work on a project. Why, was there something in particular you'd like to do?" I responded.

"Well…" He hesitated. "I'm actually kinda close to finishing that book, and it's sorta interesting enough for me to want to keep reading it. I actually was just taking a break to eat, so…"

I thought I might break my face smiling. "Say no more. I'll leave you be. But I expect a full book report when I come back," I teased, and headed down the hall to the bedroom. When I arrived, Garmadon lay on the bed absorbed in his own reading.

"The 'storm' outside is calmly absorbed in the stories of vigilante dragons, I think it's safe to go out when you want to. Do you mind if I sketch in here a while?" I asked, trying to alert Garmadon of my presence without startling him. He looked up.

"Sure thing. I didn't know you liked to draw," he responded.

"W-well, these are blueprints," I said, pulling out a pencil and some blank parchment from a desk.

"Hm. What for?" he asked.

I smiled. "I guess you'll see when I'm done."

He laughed a little and turned back to his book. I took a deep breath and started making very light marks on the paper, knowing I'd probably need several drafts before I transferred the prints over to actual blue paper. Trying to recreate what I'd made so long ago, I ran the pencil over the paper repeatedly, watching as the plans slowly took shape. It was much easier altering blueprints that I'd already memorized than coming up with them entirely from scratch.

In about half an hour's time, the basic form of the sketch in front of me was apparent. Staring back at me from the parchment was a small falcon, with intricate inner workings of metal. However, unlike the original designs which I was drawing from, this falcon was much more apparent as a machine than the first. Feathers of metal resembled scales more than anything, and glowing purple eyes were of a color unnatural for any living bird. I did not intend to recreate the original falcon— it was still alive and well in Ninjago. No, this was not the first falcon. Rather, this would be its counterpart: a companion for it when, hopefully far in the future, it made its home in this realm.

I continued to tweak the design, allowing some of the feather-scales to reveal the wiring underneath while the bird was in flight. The mechanical approach wasn't a typical design choice for me— and I did experiment with making it more lifelike— but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't heavily influenced by another certain creation, whom I had yet to meet but had seen glimpses of via the Departed Lanterns.

"There you are, my friend," I said, finishing the beak with the last few gentle strokes of my pencil. Garmadon looked over at me and I blushed a little at forgetting that I wasn't alone in the room.

Quietly, I turned back to my work. She needs a name, I thought to myself. I couldn't very well call her "the raven," as that may get confusing in the future. I leaned back in my chair from my work and thought for a good amount of time. As I planned to make her a companion of my own until the rest of her family joined us, I didn't want to give her too elaborate or complicated of a title.

Tiya, I finally wrote next to the sketches I'd created. I held up my work to the light, satisfied. She'd need many more alterations, of course, and I'd have to make sure my modifications were functional outside of theory. But it felt good to have something physical to work on again. I already had plenty of metal in my bottom drawer, but I'd have to pick up some of the specialized parts at the store soon. Perhaps that could be done today.

Suddenly, there was a loud CRASH! from down the hallway. I looked up, startled. Garmadon looked over at me gravely and spoke in his it's-the-end-of-the-world voice.

"Sounds like the brewing storm just spilled over."

—

(A/N: Uhh not much to say for this chapter [for once] except thank you all SOOO much for your support of the previous chapter; I was really nervous about how it'd be received and your nice reviews made my day! ^^ )